TL Spawn: “If we lose, it’s not like the journey ends. We still have time to improve.”
Q: That Game 1 win felt great. I started feeling like it was a 3-0 already — how big was that win behind the scenes? It felt like the team and coaches got much more confident for Game 2.
Spawn: I mean, obviously it’s nice to win a game in a best-of-five. You only need to win three of them, so it got us 33% of the way there. But we were expecting to come in and win today.
I think the boys spent the morning watching the last time we played KC, and we were able to pick up that series as well at First Stand 2025. So yeah, it was a good feeling, but we had to complete the job. I’m just glad we were able to do it in three games.
Q: Did you think the First Stand series was relevant? They have two new players, but their style is still similar?
Spawn: Yeah, their style is still similar enough. I think a lot of the games were going to be dictated around bottom lane and how Caliste played against Yeon as well. So I think it was definitely relevant.
[It’s not] one-for-one, but there’s enough of both teams there that it made sense to go back and have a look at it. And we’d already watched all their other series, so it was a good fun thing to do in the morning and gave us some confidence.
Q: What was the moment where you realized, like, “We’ve won. We did it”?
Spawn: I mean, we knew we had won when we drew KC.
No, but seriously, you know you’ve won when the third Nexus dies. They’re a really good team. They’re a class opponent. We needed to make sure that we came in and took them seriously.
Prep has been phenomenal all MSI long, to be honest. Credit to SAP, Haitham our analyst, and Spookz — who’s the person doing the drafts at the moment. They’re doing fantastic work every single game we come in. We’re amazingly prepped, the players know exactly what their role is in the game, and we’re playing well.
So we were confident, but we knew we had won when we killed their Nexus.
Q: A lot of people have argued that KC didn’t prep for you guys — or they didn’t respect your picks. Do you think giving angles for picks like Josedeodo Lee Sin was a lack of respect/prep, or something else?
Spawn: No, I don’t think it’s that — I think it’s the opposite.
When you have a player like Jose, if you leave Lee Sin up, you know he’s going to pick it. So sometimes it actually makes the draft easier.
For example, in Game 2, with Kyeahoo, I knew he was going to pick Anivia — sometimes it makes the draft easier to leave up champions that people are known for. Then if they pick them and they play really well — if they’d won Game 2 off of amazing Anivia play — I look like a moron, but sometimes you have to take these gambles.
Now, they gambled on the fact that they were going to be able to beat Jose’s Lee Sin. In hindsight, that was a very bad gamble. But I think that’s something you sometimes have to do as a coach to make the draft easier, so I don’t fault Reapered for doing that.
But in saying that, Jose’s Lee Sin is insane. If you give it to him, you better have a bloody good game plan to take it out, because otherwise he’s going to be a train and he’s going to run over your team.
Q: Jarvan seemed like a self-counterpick, to many.
Spawn: It’s an idea about how to play the game.
Lee Sin has amazing skirmish potential, but he’s not always the best teamfighter. Unless you’re playing against a master Lee Sin player, you can look for certain avenues in the game. I think that’s just what they thought. I don’t think it was a pick-ban thing, it was more about predictability within the game.
Q: Looking ahead to T1, what mindset should NA fans have? Should we really consider it a failure unless you win?
Spawn: No, obviously they’re heavily favored to win this. They’re defending world champions. They have two of the greatest players in their roles of all time. Peyz is a freak of nature — he’s like a storm on Summoner’s Rift when he gets unleashed.
So we know they’re an amazing opponent. We know it’s going to be really, really hard.
But in saying that, I’d be lying if I said I don’t think we can take games off them. So a win for us is to go out there and kill their Nexus. If we can do it three times and advance, bloody brilliant.
But if we can’t do that, then we’ve got to be able to hold our heads high, take the learnings we got from this event, and keep growing as a team until Worlds. This is a really important pit stop on our 2026 journey. If we lose, it’s not like the journey ends. We still have time to improve.
We know they’re a really great team, but I think we’re playing well at the moment as well. Our prep is good. As I said on broadcast, we’ve watched T1 a million times more than they’ve watched Team Liquid — I can guarantee it. So hopefully we can provide some spice in the game and create an upset.
I’d be really disappointed if we came out and they just ran over the top of us. Obviously it’s possible— they’re an insanely talented lineup — but we’ve got to go out there and do better.
Q: Yeon’s gotten a lot of criticism from pundits this year, in large part because this roster was built around his insane level of talent in 2024/2025. I’d argue he may be the worst-performing player on the roster right now, but that could be because the primary carry responsibilities have shifted around more. Is Yeon just taking more of a back seat right now?
Spawn: I don’t think he’s taking a back seat. I was talking to Azael about this. It’s very different compared to 2024 and 2025. Back then, when [people said] Yeon was playing really well, we were picking Taliyah every single game. If we weren’t picking Taliyah, we were picking Ziggs, and we were throwing every Ziggs ultimate into his lane. We were playing for him, playing around him heavily. Impact was playing weak side every single game.
Of course that means he has a huge burden on himself to carry, and he talked a lot about that. He didn’t want that burden. He wanted all of his teammates to play at a very high level as well. We were also picking exclusively tank junglers for UmTi — the team was set up for him and APA to be those carries.
Now we do not play that way.
And I don’t actually agree that he’s the worst-performing member. I actually gave him best [on the team] — it was him or Core yesterday in that series, who were the best performing players. His Senna game today was phenomenal, to be completely honest. His Lucian game in Game 3 versus DCG was insane. He completely took over that game.
Q: Ah but it’s Yeon Lucian — you can’t count that, it’s not fair to his opponents.
Spawn: I mean you have to count it. But then don’t count Jose Lee Sin — otherwise we’re just comparing pears with bananas.
I think he’s playing well. I’m happy with all my players at the moment. To beat a quality team like KC, everyone has to play amazingly. I think everyone’s playing well, everyone’s doing their job, and we’re all stepping up.
Q: How do you weigh KC’s mistakes — Canna getting solokilled, Caliste’s positioning — in this series? A lot of people have argued today was a significant underperformance.
Spawn: I don’t think KC played poorly at all. I think we played well. If you look at Morgan, he solo killed Doran twice in a game and they still weren’t able to beat us. A solo kill does not cost your team the game.
I think they’re an insanely talented lineup. I respect that team from top to bottom, and I think it’s built really well. Reapered is a fantastic coach.
We came in, we prepared well, and we beat them. As I said a million times before, I had not lost to Europe. We weren’t planning on doing it. I think North America is better than people give [us] credit for, and we’re here to show the world that — so let’s just keep the journey going.
I don’t think us beating KC diminishes the fact that they’re a fantastic team. They also 3-0’d DCG to get to where they are in this tournament, and they put up bloody good performances against T1 as well.
I’m sure they’re all shattered and disappointed, but they are a very good lineup. They’re world-class. This victory against them should be a proud moment for us, not a diminishing of the LEC, because I would hate that to be the case.
Our players played well — we deserve respect. Their players are world-class, and they’re a very good lineup. I’m very proud of my team for beating them.
Q: Spawn, if you ever become a US citizen, I hope you run for political office so I can vote for you. You’re a great orator.
Spawn: I’m staying in Australia. That’s where my kids are.
Header Image Credit: Riot Games
